Salary sacrifce

kevcarling

First post in a very long while, so forgive me if its in the wrong place.

Just a general question about SS my employer decided we were going to have SS a number of years ago and automatically opted myself into their scheme. I was totally against it and had to actually opt out of the SS even though i wasn't in it!! Never mind, what i want to know can SS affect your state pension? After all it is reduced NI contribrutions.

steampowered

It sounds like your employer was simply complying with its legal obligation to enroll employees into a pension scheme unless you opt out.

No, private pension contributions don't affect your state pension.

Why did you opt out? If your employer matches contributions, by opting out of the scheme you are basically throwing away free money.

TBagpuss

As steampowered says, it sounds as though you've been enrolled into a workplace pension, rather than signed up for Salary Sacrifice.

You were probably given some information about it at the time, which would have included information about opting out.

This is rarely a good idea, as it means giving up free money, both from your employer (who will normally be contributing into the pension) and from the government (as you get back the tax on your contributions)

However, if you do want to opt out you would need to speak to your employer about how to do so.

If it is actually a salary sacrifice scheme then again you should be able to opt out if you want - ask you R or payroll department for details of the current scheme and how to opt out.

Undervalued

kevcarling wrote: »

First post in a very long while, so forgive me if its in the wrong place.

Just a general question about SS my employer decided we were going to have SS a number of years ago and automatically opted myself into their scheme. I was totally against it and had to actually opt out of the SS even though i wasn't in it!! Never mind, what i want to know can SS affect your state pension? After all it is reduced NI contribrutions.

No, not state pension as it is based on the number of years of contributions, not how much you paid.

However, your company pension may well be affected as that is presumably related to your earnings. However you would need to check the terms of your scheme.